This invention concerns a knee-pad or an elbow-pad, particularly having a body provided with lateral ribs and grooves between every two ribs containing elastic members to bend substantially to suit to bending and straightening movement of a knee or an elbow of a user.
A known conventional knee-pad or elbow-pad 1 shown in FIG. 1 is made of foam rubber and wrapped with a surface cloth and an intermediate outer cap A1. Then external shock is absorbed by the thick foam rubber, but can often have the right and the left side protruding out, impossible to bend together with the knee so that the knee portion to be protected is quite limited because of the portion near the knee being exposed out. Besides, frequent knee bending movement may force the knee-pad move away from the knee so that the knee-pad has to be newly adjusted in its location.
Another known conventional knee-pad or elbow-pad shown in FIG. 2 is formed of hard plastics by means of injecting process, having three portions, namely, an upper portion, an intermediate portion and a lower portion, connected together. However, as this knee-pad has a definite size, impossible to suit every body size, and in addition, hardly bendable to contact closely with the outer surface of the knee and its neighboring portion.
The two kinds of known conventional knee-pad or elbow pads are designed to fit with a knee or an elbow in the straight condition. But a knee of a user in playing a game is often in half or substantially bent condition. For example;
1. Knees of players of hockey, of ice hockey, of goalkeepers of football, of skaters, of skiers, of gliding boarders and of bike racers are almost bent halfway.
2. The knees of catchers of baseball are often bent fully.
3. Elbows of players of many kinds of ball games are often kept in bent condition.
Therefore, the known conventional knee-pads or elbow-pads hardly satisfy need of physical movement in various kinds of sports, giving users tenseness and fatigue in wearing.